First Intel build - Will it FreeNAS?

[rcnut]

For your case, what is the maximum number of disks you could expect to eventually have?

Right now I'm planning for a total of 8. With two parity that would give me about 24TB. Starting off, 16TB will be plenty.
I'm trying to figure out what size power supply I really need with the 8 spinning drives coming up. It would be nice if the BIOS could tell the PSU to bring up one port at a time to avoid the surge.

 

[MrToddsFriends]

I'm trying to figure out what size power supply I really need with the 8 spinning drives coming up. It would be nice if the BIOS could tell the PSU to bring up one port at a time to avoid the surge.

For the sake of robustness of your system consider all those "staggered spin up" options as possibly error-prone. In addition to that: A Seasonic Focus Plus 650W PSU with its 8 SATA power ports is nearly silent and a high quality part and not exceedingly expensive.

 

[rcnut]

For the sake of robustness of your system consider all those "staggered spin up" options as possibly error-prone. In addition to that: A Seasonic Focus Plus 650W PSU with its 8 SATA power ports is nearly silent and a high quality part and not exceedingly expensive.

Inxsible suggested the Seasonic or Corsair and I was leaning toward Corsair.
I've been trying to calculate power requirements reading the Proper Power Supply Sizing Guidance. Not counting 10W per LSI 8 port HBA, I come up with 418W. I have no clue what the LSI 8 port HBA is. I could probably run on 550W.
Comparing the Seasonic to the Corsair, I only see a slight dimension difference. I do like the 10 year warranty! So for $30 less, I guess I go with Seasonic.
When I expand the system to 8 spinning drives, I suppose I can split one power cable with a Y for the SSD.

 

[Inxsible]

Inxsible suggested the Seasonic or Corsair and I was leaning toward Corsair.
I've been trying to calculate power requirements reading the Proper Power Supply Sizing Guidance. Not counting 10W per LSI 8 port HBA, I come up with 418W. I have no clue what the LSI 8 port HBA is. I could probably run on 550W.
Comparing the Seasonic to the Corsair, I only see a slight dimension difference. I do like the 10 year warranty! So for $30 less, I guess I go with Seasonic.
When I expand the system to 8 spinning drives, I suppose I can split one power cable with a Y for the SSD.

If the Seasonic has 8 SATA power then that's what you should go with. Will save you the headache of using splitters. HBA is a Host Bus Adapter in case you want to connect all 8 drives using 1 PCIE card instead of the SATA ports on the motherboard. Or if you need 6Gbps connections but your on-board SATA is 3Gbps. Then you can use a HBA.

 

[rcnut]

If the Seasonic has 8 SATA power then that's what you should go with. Will save you the headache of using splitters. HBA is a Host Bus Adapter in case you want to connect all 8 drives using 1 PCIE card instead of the SATA ports on the motherboard. Or if you need 6Gbps connections but your on-board SATA is 3Gbps. Then you can use a HBA.

Okay, then if I don't use the LSI 8 port HBA, I don't need to include that in the power requirement. Motherboard spec shows only two drives at 6Gbps and four at 3Gbps, so I guess I can just run them all at 3. I'm not in that big a hurry. 650W will easily be more than enough power.
But when I add the 8th spinning drive, I'll need to use one splitter to power the SSD.

 

[Inxsible]

Okay, then if I don't use the LSI 8 port HBA, I don't need to include that in the power requirement.

Nope. You don't need to.

Motherboard spec shows only two drives at 6Gbps and four at 3Gbps, so I guess I can just run them all at 3. I'm not in that big a hurry. 650W will easily be more than enough power.

Right. I have 6 drives plus 3 fans, motherboard, 1 USB, front panel and I only have 450W PSU. Unless you plan to expand in the near future, you should plan your PSU such that the power draw is in the PSUs sweet spot for maximum efficiency. Bigger PSUs might look good in numbers for eg. 650 > 450, but depending on how much power your system draws, 450 might work more efficiently.

But when I add the 8th spinning drive, I'll need to use one splitter to power the SSD.

You might have to or you might not. I don't recall the setup of the Seasonic PSU that you are talking about, but if you have an additional molex out apart from the 8 SATA power, then you don't need a Y-splitter, only a molex to SATA adapter.

 

[rcnut]

Nope. You don't need to.
Right. I have 6 drives plus 3 fans, motherboard, 1 USB, front panel and I only have 450W PSU. Unless you plan to expand in the near future, you should plan your PSU such that the power draw is in the PSUs sweet spot for maximum efficiency. Bigger PSUs might look good in numbers for eg. 650 > 450, but depending on how much power your system draws, 450 might work more efficiently.
You might have to or you might not. I don't recall the setup of the Seasonic PSU that you are talking about, but if you have an additional molex out apart from the 8 SATA power, then you don't need a Y-splitter, only a molex to SATA adapter.

If the efficiency concern is for the power bill, mine is included in the rent. If it's for the lack of load on the PSU, then I would need to get a 450W and some power splitters. I would prefer to get the PSU that will run the 8 drives.
You have a good point about the possible Molex. There are four ports on the PSU labeled Peripheral-IDE/SATA/Molex. So I expect to have four cables powering two drives each. But there will be other unused ports and I bet I could reconfigure a cable to power the SSD from that. I already have a Molex to SATA adapter and it sounds like they supply at least one Molex cable.

 

[Inxsible]

Main concern should be whether you can power all your components. See if you can find a similar 500-550W PSU with 8 SATA power plugs. If not, just get the Seasonic 650 and be done with it.

 

[rcnut]

Main concern should be whether you can power all your components. See if you can find a similar 500-550W PSU with 8 SATA power plugs. If not, just get the Seasonic 650 and be done with it.

Yeah, that's the thing. Smaller supplys come with fewer Sata cables

 

[Inxsible]

Yeah, that's the thing. Smaller supplys come with fewer Sata cables

That's true. I had to put in molex to sata adapters to power my 6 drives using the Corsair CS450M and then use 1 splitter to power the chassis fan.

 

[Chris Moore]

Better to have more power than you need than to be bordering on not enough.

You keep talking about expansion of the pool. What are your expectations there?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[rcnut]

You keep talking about expansion of the pool. What are your expectations there?

I'm thinking eight drives, though I may have to start with six and add two later.

 

[Inxsible]

I'm thinking eight drives, though I may have to start with six and add two later.

Not to the same vdev... you can't !

 

[rcnut]

Not to the same vdev... you can't !

Are you saying I can't increase the size of a pool?

 

[Inxsible]

Are you saying I can't increase the size of a pool?

You can by adding in a new vdev. But you cannot add more disks to an existing vdev.
But then you'd have asymmetrical vdevs with 6 disks in vdev 1 and 2 disks in vdev 2 which would screw up your 2 drive redundancy for RAIDZ2 because :

1. 6 drive RAIDZ2 (initially)
2. add 2 drives -- this could only be either a mirror(1 drive redundancy) or a stripe (0 redundancy)

Your overall pool therefore would no longer have a 2 drive redundancy anymore if you create that 2nd vdev.

 

[rcnut]

You can by adding in a new vdev. But you cannot add more disks to an existing vdev.

Thanks for pointing that out. I guess I'll have to wait until I can afford eight drives :(

 

[Chris Moore]

Thanks for pointing that out. I guess I'll have to wait until I can afford eight drives :(

That is why I asked the leading question. I had a feeling that is what you were thinking. Sorry. It won't take long to get the extra couple drives. You can easily build the pool with smaller drives, if you have some available, and replace the smaller drives when you get the larger ones. The drives don't all need to be the same size, you are just limited to the space of the smallest drive.

You might want to look at this slideshow to help familiarize you with the technology:

Slideshow explaining VDev, zpool, ZIL and L2ARC
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/

Terminology and Abbreviations Primer
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/terminology-and-abbreviations-primer.28174/

 

[rcnut]

You can easily build the pool with smaller drives, if you have some available, and replace the smaller drives when you get the larger ones. The drives don't all need to be the same size, you are just limited to the space of the smallest drive.

You're not talking about mixing drive sizes within a dev are you?
Like combining six 4TB with two 2TB for a total of eight drives but under 12TB storage using two 2 drives for parity?

 

[MrToddsFriends]

Like combining six 4TB with two 2TB for a total of eight drives but under 12TB storage using two 2 drives for parity?

Six 4TB with two 2TB combined in a single vdev (for example RaidZ2):
All disks are handled as if they had 2TB, the smallest capacity within this vdev (as always).

After future replacement of the two 2TB disks with 4TB ones:
Full capacity (4TB) of all disks is used.

Usable capacity in initial situation is far from optimal, but in this way one could create an eight disk vdev right from the start with buying six 4TB disks and using two 2TB disks already available.

 

[rcnut]

Six 4TB with two 2TB combined in a single vdev (for example RaidZ2):
All disks are handled as if they had 2TB, the smallest capacity within this vdev (as always).

After future replacement of the two 2TB disks with 4TB ones:
Full capacity (4TB) of all disks is used.

Usable capacity in initial situation is far from optimal, but in this way one could create an eight disk vdev right from the start with buying six 4TB disks and using two 2TB disks already available.

BINGO! That, I can do.
Thanks